218. Gray

I recently visited the host family where I lived during my two months of training.  It was a fun to catch up with them.  It is fun because I lived with them when I first came to Moldova, so I could literally say, "yes" and, "no".  Now I can actually hold a conversation.

It had been a while since I have seen them.  A lot had changed with their work, family and other things.  I guess a few things have changed with me as well, because this conversation followed:

Host mom:  Tim, has life in Moldovan been stressful?
Me:  Well, at times, but usually no.  Why?
Host mom:  Because you have more gray hair now than when you first came to Moldova.

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217. Ready to leave?

A few days ago I celebrated my two year anniversary of living in Moldova. It is a pretty intense feeling to know that I have lived in another country, used a different language and I am almost at my goal of 26 months as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Moldova.

Over the next two months the volunteers will be leaving from my group to go onto the next adventures. Even lately as this week volunteers have started returning to their homes. I do not leave until towards the end of August, it feels at times like a long way away, but I know the time will fly.

One of my fellow volunteers was asked by the people that he works with if he was sitting on his packed bags. I guess it is a Russian/Moldovan tradition to pack your bags before a trip and then sit on them and dream about the trip. He replied, "yes", he has finished everything he needed to in Moldova and is just waiting for the next month to pass.

When Moldovans or other volunteers ask me if I am excited about leaving Moldova I say, "No". I mean, I am excited for the next adventure, but at the same time I have two open grants (which are moving painfully slowly towards completion), I have a group from Switzerland coming to do projects in my village that I have to plan logistics, housing and activities for and a group from America and Canada coming to do an English camp. So I tell everyone, that I can't get excited about leaving until my projects are completed or at least until I can see an end to my projects.

I am actually pretty jealous of people just waiting to leave Moldova, I am sort of stressing out because of these projects and the problems that always pop-up as you get close to closing a project.

Another reason I do not thing about being in America is because I plan on traveling for a few months and returning to the US at the end of October, so I still have a good amount of time left before my feet touch US sails. But my plan is still up in the air depending on how my job search goes.

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